STOCKTON, Calif.—Proco Products Inc. is starting to have success with a new series of rubber expansion joints designed for use in plastic pipe systems.
The Stockton-based firm's Series 262 product is a double arch expansion joint designed to allow for more movement in the plastic pipe systems that are installed in conjunction with PVC and polyethylene tanks, said Rob Coffee, Proco vice president of sales and marketing.
The new line is a follow-up from its Series 261 product, as customers expressed the need to have more movement capability. Proco worked on developing the product line for about a year before unveiling the Series 262, with the product available in diameters of 2 to 12 inches using EPDM, nitrile rubber or CSM (Hypalon) tubing.
“We discerned that these elastomers will satisfy the majority of the requirements for the industry,” Coffee said.
Proco worked through the designs, conducted testing and gave customers test samples for use in their systems. “The results were they liked the product; it worked for them,” he said.
Plastic tank manufacturers base the movement on the size of the tank and the amount of liquid in it, according to the Proco executive. “The more liquid and the bigger the tank, the more movement they have, and they want to have some safety factors,” Coffee said. “That's one of the reasons we developed the product specifically for them.”
Waste treatment plants will be a big focus, as well as anywhere there are potential chemical applications where plastic tanks and/or piping systems are in use. “We see it as being a good product for those types of applications,” he said. “More and more plastics applications are evolving, so this is going to be a product that will definitely be around to satisfy those requirements.”
The new series is designed to handle a maximum of 150 psi, which Coffee said is well above the pressure requirements for the majority of applications in which plastic piping is in use.
Series 262 has been on the market for nearly a year, and Proco is working to bring more brand awareness about the product, he said. The firm is talking about the offering at industry shows, advertising the line and educating its distribution network on the benefits of the product.
Besides the major industrial plastics distributors that are selling the plastic tanks, Proco is touting the advantage of the new series to tank manufacturers to let them know it is available.
The pricing is roughly 30 percent above the Series 261 expansion joint line, according to Coffee.
“The need for the movement is the big differential and what the customers are really asking for, so we met that need,” he said.
We believe our product in the double arch is the only product out on the market right now to satisfy the requirements of the plastic piping systems with the larger movement requirements.”
Proco Products also is completing a $1 million project, he said, with a distributor in Canada to supply expansion joints to a greenfield pot ash processing and mining facility outside Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
The first part of the order was for 235 expansion joints, he said.
More than 60 percent of Proco's business goes through distribution, with the rest supplying goods for such major projects in the power and chemical sectors. Coffee said the firm is expecting a bright future, noting the project side of the business looks good at least until 2018.